Donald Trump’s Administration Is Reportedly Clashing With Joe Biden’s Transition Team Over Pentagon Meetings
A Friday CNN report spotlighted a clash between Joe Biden’s incoming team and Donald Trump’s outgoing administration. In particular, the two camps are allegedly battling over the Biden transition team’s access to Pentagon meetings.
Yohannes Abraham, executive director of the Biden transition, claimed that a two-week break in the meetings was not approved by the Democrat’s allies.
“There was no mutually agreed upon holiday break. In fact, we think it’s important that briefings and other engagements continue during this period, as there’s no time to spare.”
Conversely, Christopher Miller, Trump’s acting Secretary of Defense, said that Biden’s camp agreed to the hiatus. He also denied reporting that suggested the Pentagon was declining or canceling meetings with the president-elect’s transition.
Abraham reportedly urged Pentagon officials to resume the meetings in the name of “national security and continuity of government.”
“In terms of when meetings will resume, meetings and requests for information, which are substantively interchangeable, it’s our hope and expectation that that will happen immediately.”
Miller claimed that the holiday break begins on Saturday, and the meetings will continue after the hiatus.
Per Politico, Miller claimed that the Pentagon has conducted 139 interview sessions involving the Biden team that included over 200 personnel from the Department of Defense as well as “thousands of pages of documents.”
“Again, I remain committed to a full and transparent transition — this is what our nation expects and the DoD will deliver AS IT ALWAYS HAS.”
According to Biden spokesperson Jen Psaki, career Defense Department officials have been “cooperative and helpful.” But when it comes to Trump’s political appointees, she claims that the Biden transition has had “isolated” issues with them throughout the process.
As The Inquisitr reported, Trump’s administration has allegedly been sending officials to monitor the Biden transition’s meetings with career civil servants. Although The New York Times noted this is not out of the ordinary, the publication sourced some experts who alleged that the Trump government is attempting to use the purported monitoring to slow the transition process.
The transition as a whole was at a standstill for weeks after Emily W. Murphy, the administrator of the General Services Administration, refused to sign-off on the beginning of the process. Although Trump said that he supported Murphy’s decision, he has still refused to concede the election to Biden, who was formally certified as the winner by the Electoral College earlier this week.
Despite clashes with Biden’s allies, Trump reportedly understands that he is leaving the White House next month.
